Jetta/Bora/Vento TDI Picture GalleryDo you have a Jetta/Bora/or Vento TDI? If so write a message here describing it and insert a picture if you have one. If you don't have one on the computer, email me and I'll give you my address and I'll scan it for you. If you need web space for it, email me as well. Please make a short yet descriptive title for your vehicle.

I've been so pleased with my wife's Mk6 (foreground) that I knew I'd steal it and drive it more than her if I didn't get one of my own. I didn't want the Cornsilk interior. So I went with a Reflex Silver Metallic with black interior:

I'm probably forbidden to modify her car. MINE will be modified. I've already done the VCDS mods and I'll get a clear bra really soon. I'm also looking for some nice OEM "take-off" wheels. Of course, none of my TDI's last long without getting one of these:

I'll tune it after I run out the warranty. I'm not sure if I'll go farther than just a tune. That seems to be when my problems started with my Mk3. In case you're wondering, NO, I'm not getting rid of my Mk3. Now that I have a third car, I'll park the Mk3 for a while and do some rehabilitation. Perhaps I'll be done before winter. We'll see. HERE'S A PHOTO ALBUM of my (other) new Mk6.

However, I like the SD card slot which allows me to bring my own music when I drive the car instead of the Mk3. In short, the stereo is very good, especially for a factory radio.

SD card? Wait til you discover Bluetooth on your phone and phones that have music on them!!! Such a great convenience these days. Hop in n out of the car without touching your phone and all the music you want from your phone!

Yep, I have a pair! I'm not quite sure when they will start to differ beyond just the colors.

Quote:

Originally Posted by agxster

Looking good. When does the resto start on your old one?

Some of it will start this weekend. The car is parked at my base while I'm on the road in a government vehicle (group travel). I wanted to burn the tank down a little more so I'd have less fuel to pump out. Here's a list of things I can think of that I want to address:

(Note: I have no experience with body work, renovation or restoration. I'll be learning as I go and taking my time.)

1. Rust in the fuel filler area. This is getting bad enough that I must address it prior to the strut towers. It should be easy; but there's an inaccessible void where I may have rust hiding. I'm going to try to blast some rust preformer in there through a hole that's already eaten through.

2. Front strut tower rust. I hope this is just surface rust. I'll know for sure once I get the wheels off and hit it with a grinder. I'll have POR-15 ready and will clean the rust, treat the metal with the POR-15 process and even undercoat the wheel wells with POR undercoat. Hopefully, that will get me another 5-10 years!

3. Driver's seat is blown-out again. This time, it's the seat back bolster instead of the seat cushion. I have spare seats and will swap one in, perhaps even get the good seat back off my original seat and mix it to the good seat bottom on my first spare seat.

4. Since I'm removing seats, I'll go ahead and pull up the carpet. It's not in terrible shape... just a few stains that aren't coming out. But I gotta know if I have rust in my floorboards. I've had some good spills in there and even got caught with a window down overnight in the rain. I vacuumed the water out almost immediately. But there may still be a problem under there. If there is, I'll go nuts with the POR-15 product to seal it up. Then I may replace the carpet with new if I'm not pleased with how the original cleans up.

5. The tail light seals are leaking. No big deal. I'll either buy new OEM replacements if they're available or I'll cut custom pieces from material I source myself.

6. I have a pesky leak somewhere on the front of the engine. I think it's the vacuum pump. With the car off the road and cold, I should have no problem finally getting to this.

7. Brake job and possibly a rear disc conversion. I have a good deal on a set of used parts from a Mk2 GTI.

8. A turbo swap to a GT-2052. I've done swaps before. So I know I can do it. Without the pressure to get a swift turnaround on my only driver, I should be able to take my time getting the oil feed/drain done right as well as a good solution to the air inlet. Once the turbo is in and the car runs, I'll take it in for a custom exhaust. Being able to leave the car parked also means I can do this part of the rehabilitation in segments instead of a lump sum cost.

9. Once the mechanical stuff is done, PAINT. The car needs it badly. The hood is peeling up all over and there are plenty of out-of-control rock chips in the bumper. Time for a refresh, but not until the wrenching is done.

That's about it. I may start a dedicated topic about this in the Mk3 section. We'll see.

Quote:

Originally Posted by eddjmemg

SD card? Wait til you discover Bluetooth on your phone and phones that have music on them!!! Such a great convenience these days. Hop in n out of the car without touching your phone and all the music you want from your phone!

Yep. It's discovered. But, when I wrote that, I only had my wife's car and HER phone was paired. Even when I had her car by myself, I don't like fiddling with the phone until I have a proper holder for it. I know the head unit will interface with the phone. But it doesn't appear to like my phone's player. That said, what apps seem to work best on an Android phone through the Fender system? I may experiment when I get home. I only had my own Mk6 three days before I left for the week. I really haven't played with it yet. It's coming, though.

I was trying to add "Jking" to my post but I can't edit for some reason. Lol.

If you're into radio iheart radio is really good. Especially for talk shows or radio stations from all over. I use that a lot plus iPhone specific stuff like podcasts and iTunes Radio. Pandora is also decent. Pretty much replaces iPods with all your music. It'll play specific genres and all good songs to bring back memories.
Have fun with the new car.
Btw sometimes it's just time to move on with the old car. I did it twice. Both Mustangs. One was my first car.

I was trying to add "Jking" to my post but I can't edit for some reason. Lol.

No sweat. I took it as good-hearted "get into the 21st century" fun. I tried playing some music via Bluetooth. But it skips or micro-pauses every 20-30 seconds. It does it on Bluetooth earpieces, too. It works fine on phone calls and it plays music through wired headphones just fine. I suspect the Droid Razr Maxx HD just isn't up to the task of stereo through Bluetooth devices. Perhaps my next phone will work better. Regardless, when I am listening to my SD card and its high-quality files, all it takes a notification sound or something on the phone to automatically switch the source to "BT Audio." It's VERY annoying. For now, I've disabled the media option between my phone and the VW.

Quote:

Originally Posted by eddjmemg

Btw sometimes it's just time to move on with the old car. I did it twice. Both Mustangs. One was my first car.

I hear what you're saying. But I still want to keep the Mk3. I think it could be fun as a show car or perhaps a car for my daughter when she's old enough to drive in a couple of years. If I'm going to have an extra car, I'd rather be in the "old VW" game than the "new domestic" game. It seems to be a lot cheaper, especially with the support we have here. On the other hand, did I just buy a $25,000 car so I can fix my Mk3?

If you've seen my Mk3's interior, then you know I like my gadgets. However, the Mk6's interior is so tightly-fitted that it's a real challenge to find a good mounting point and way to hide the wires. I read an opinion in VWVortex that I like. In short, the poster doesn't mind a visible wire or two so long as the car shows almost no signs of a device when it's parked. I think it was in his post that I discovered Tetrax mounts.

I'm trying a Tetrax EGO for the time being and currently like it:

[edit] I've updated the photo above now that I have a solution which hides most of the wire. [/edit] I can easily pull the phone and cord out and leave the car looking like this:

I'm also working on a way to mount my Garmin with power. Here it is just sitting on the mount without a power cord:

I'm going to learn to use my smartphone and GoogleMaps for local trips. By "learn," I mean "figure out how to save addresses" so I don't have to keep looking them up. But the Garmin still rocks for really long drives and frees up the phone for other stuff... like being a phone. If I like GoogleMaps enough, I may even try mounting a Nexus 7.

I'm not 100% decided, but I'm pretty certain I will not be installing ham radio equipment in this car. I honestly don't use it so much these days and, like I said above, the interior is so well-sorted that I don't think I could get one in there to my satisfaction.

I use them in all my cars including my recently totalled Jetta. A bit expensive but worth it IMHO. Their move clip system allows you to remove the device holder leaving just a mounting bracket. This is good for both discretion in bad areas and lets you use different holders on one mount.

Here's how my carrier is elevated three inches to help clear driveways and uneven intersections...

Clearance drops just a tad with 100 lbs on the tray. This crook was usually the first to strike a driveway on my Mk3...

The cargo sits closer to my Mk6 than the Mk3..

And it's lower against the high trunk lid for better economy. At least that's what I tell myself.

The tray is a little more wobbly than with my other hitch. I'll look into a hitch tightener. The backup camera is useless with cargo, though. I expect to pull a trailer so I can pick up a loft bed tomorrow.

I went to a parking lot to brush up on my backing skills since I hadn't towed with this car before.
One skill I like to have is the ability to jackknife the trailer into a buffer zone beside an end spot. That way, I take up just one spot instead of two...

I can't jackknife my Mk6 quite as tightly as I can my Mk3. But it still works well...

I even figured out a good reference point on the camera to mark my "stop" position...

Here's a close-up of my coupler...

I mentioned earlier that I could paint a strip on the tongue to mark when I was over the ball. A better solution will be to paint the coupler handle orange since it's a good marker...

I crossed 10,000 miles last week. I'm amazed I reached that milestone in just four months without any road trips. I haven't even left my local area. I can hardly wait to hit the highway for a few hundred miles. Maybe then I'll see the kind of MPG's that I'll appreciate more.

I've been enjoying the car. It's still mostly stock. I knocked the hitch on a driveway. So, I don't expect to lower the car, not even a little. I'd rather have a workhorse than less wheel gap. I have been working on little details regarding the electronics.

My new smartphone was an easy update. My photo album automatically updated the photo in post #23 when I overwrote the old image:

I finally found a way to route the power wire:

Running Torque Pro:

I'm experimenting with a Garmin mounting location that neither blocks an air vent nor clutters up the dash too much. I chose this location:

Unlike with my Mk3, I carry my bicycle in the trunk a lot more often. The back seats fold down much faster and the trunk
has a better shape to carry the bike, especially since the subwoofer is mounted high:

But I was getting grease stains inside. So I made a shield:

Of course, I still use the carrier when I need to move more than one bike. I'm actually carrying three bikes in this photo (one in the trunk):

I've also deleted the Bluetooth and CarNet modules. I have details in this thread.

That's all I can think of for now. At my current rate of driving, I expect to be ready for my 20k service, the last freebie from VW, by February. My birthday is in February. So that may be a good time for a tune.